Secret judge saga - Protestors "refused to listen to what we have told them"!

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/green_flag_award_meetings_and_co#incoming-40045 What do you think of this? I cannot understand this. Why judges for a park award should be kept secret? Cover up so there must be something to hide ? And accusing protester's of misinformation is appalling, the judges should have arranged to meet them and not excepted that as true. Judges told ...Protesters "refused to listen to what we have told them"! And the judges asking for advice...!!! One of the judges says "having a wobble about whether of not to enter the fray! I would be grateful if you could give me a bit of a steer about how delicate the situation is or not.. as i don't want to get embroiled in a political muddle. Is this a big issue for you and your team? I like a challenge but would appreciate a heads up so I can make a more informed decision about whether to come to Bute or not. Are we likely to be lobbied on the day? A girl needs to know. Any help or advice advice you can offer will be much appreciated. so the judges are Wined and dined by the parks department! My Ref: MAT(P)/SD/2059/CLP0012 G00158 14 August, 2009 Anne Greagsby [FOI #16595 email] My Ref: MAT(P)/SD/2059/CLP0012 G00158 14 August, 2009 Anne Greagsby [FOI #16595 email] Dear Ms Greagsby ELECTORAL DIVISION: CATHAYS GREEN FLAG JUDGING OF BUTE PARK Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 about correspondence relating to the Green Flag judging of Bute Park in 2009 received on 7th August 2009. We have considered your request and enclose the following information: Various emails between Council officers and the judging team, and the itinerary for the judging visit. Most of the documents that we provide in response to Environmental Information Regulations 2004 requests will be subject to copyright protection. In most cases the copyright will be owned by Cardiff Council. The copyright in some documents may be owned by another person or organisation, as indicated on the documents themselves. You are free to use any documents supplied for your own use, including for non-commercial research purposes. The documents may also be used for news reporting. However, any other type of re-use, for example by publishing the documents or issuing copies to the public will require the permission of the copyright owner. Details of the arrangements for reusing the material owned by Cardiff Council can be found on our website at or by contacting the Information Manager, Room 111, County Hall, Cardiff CF10 4UW (Phone 029 2087 3346). For documents where the copyright is not owned by Cardiff Council, you would need to apply to the copyright owner to obtain their permission for re-use. We supply this information based on your original request. If this information does not answer your enquiry or if you feel we have not fully understood your request, please contact me to clarify your exact requirements. If you have any queries or concerns or are in any way dissatisfied with the handling of your request please do not hesitate to contact me. Yours sincerely Jon Maidment Operational Manager Parks show quoted sections Dear Ms Greagsby ELECTORAL DIVISION: CATHAYS GREEN FLAG JUDGING OF BUTE PARK Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 about correspondence relating to the Green Flag judging of Bute Park in 2009 received on 7th August 2009. We have considered your request and enclose the following information: Various emails between Council officers and the judging team, and the itinerary for the judging visit. Most of the documents that we provide in response to Environmental Information Regulations 2004 requests will be subject to copyright protection. In most cases the copyright will be owned by Cardiff Council. The copyright in some documents may be owned by another person or organisation, as indicated on the documents themselves. You are free to use any documents supplied for your own use, including for non-commercial research purposes. The documents may also be used for news reporting. However, any other type of re-use, for example by publishing the documents or issuing copies to the public will require the permission of the copyright owner. Details of the arrangements for reusing the material owned by Cardiff Council can be found on our website at or by contacting the Information Manager, Room 111, County Hall, Cardiff CF10 4UW (Phone 029 2087 3346). For documents where the copyright is not owned by Cardiff Council, you would need to apply to the copyright owner to obtain their permission for re-use. We supply this information based on your original request. If this information does not answer your enquiry or if you feel we have not fully understood your request, please contact me to clarify your exact requirements. If you have any queries or concerns or are in any way dissatisfied with the handling of your request please do not hesitate to contact me. Yours sincerely Jon Maidment Operational Manager Parks show quoted sections

Nature Not Roads in Bute Park

Upcoming events:

18th/19th April - RHS Show

23rd April - Full council meeting - an opportunity to pose questions to the Council re. green spaces

As the RHS is supportive of the building of the bridge and road in Bute Park we have decided to set up an info stand and banners to inform visitors of our views on these developments.

Banners and a small number of placards have been made.

Please feel free to make some more!

We will be setting up near the entrance on North Road

10am - 2pm Saturday 18th April

10am - 2pm Sunday 19th April

Hopefully see you there!

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At the next Full Council meeting on the 23rd April there will be a discussion on the issue of green spaces.

Members of the public can submit questions to the Council which if selected will be answered at the meeting.

A question has to be in no later than 5.00pm five working days before the meeting. It must give your name and address and say which member of the Council Executive the question is to be put to.

You can e-mail the question to Jeff Parry, Committee Services Manager:j.parry@cardiff.gov.uk

You sit in the Council chamber to hear the reply, which you will get in writing just before the meeting, after you get your answer you can ask one supplementary question.

(see attached for more info)

We will be staging a small demo outside County Hall prior to the meeting and then as many of us as possible will sit in the meeting.

Again feel free to make more placards and banners!

Cllr Petrol Head Howells rubbished criticisms of lorry road into Bute Park

Bute Park – Echo 10th Jan 2009

Cllr Petrol Head Howells rubbished criticisms of plans for Victorian parklands

Plans in best interest of city” says leisure chief! Coun Howells “What we are doing is in the best interests of Bute Park and will preserve what is one of the best examples of Victorian Parkland in the UK”.

Despite a letter from an assembly civil servant from writing on behalf of heritage minister heritage Alun Ffred Jones and calling for more consultation Coun Howells said that the council had no plans for further consultation nad the heritage lottery fund was not taking any interest in the work to the road or the lorry bridge.

We challenge Cllr Howells to attend a public meeting. Give us a chance to discuss it with you, he couldn't find the time to attend the last public meeting.

It will be over our dead bodies that Cllr Howells scars and destroys Bute Park and its landscape by building this ugly raised 4 metre wide roads with dangerous 2 metre long 1 in 5 slopes on either sidethrough Bute Park. It is extremely arrogant of Cllr Howells to state that he knows best. He has been corrupt in

1. Failing to ensure that the Bute Park new development was properly assessed for sustainability prior to implementation as in the Park & Green Space Strategy

2. Failing to consider a decision to limit the size of lorries in the Park as requested from Cllr Simon Wakefield).
3. Speaking at the planning meeting purely advocating the project without claiming to representing his electors’ views, and did not declare a prejudicial ‘interest’.

Cllr Nigel Howells, Exec member has the scheme in his portfolio
4. Reports from council officers were 'sexed down' to minimise the impact.
The Highways “Options Appraisal” was altered (between the January and August versions) to support the Parks’ claim of the present situation being ‘unsafe’ and the Project being ‘essential

There must be a comprehensive programme of public consultation on the proposed plans to restore the Park and I challenge Cllr Howells to give us a time he can attend a public meeting to give people the chance to answer these question and others.

More information here No lorries in Bute Park

Tell him what you think! NHowells@cardiff.gov.uk,
journalist who wrote the article david.james@mediawales.co.uk,
write to echo ecletters@mediawales.co.uk
write to the Heritage lottery fund jennifers@hlf.org.uk,

School of regional planning Kevin Morgan slams Bute Park Scheme

Professor denounces Bute Park road access scheme - WalesOnline13 Nov 2008 ... Kevin Morgan, a professor in the school of City and Regional ... Bute Park was landscaped in the late 18th century by Capability Brown and ... Nov 13 2008 by Martin Shipton, South Wales Echo

ONE of Wales’ leading academics has passionately denounced a scheme to build a new road access for lorries into Bute Park in Cardiff.

Kevin Morgan, a professor in the school of City and Regional Planning at Cardiff University, believes the scheme amounts to a desecration of one of the city’s greatest assets.

The scheme was passed by councillors on October 15 after they were told that articulated lorries needed to deliver plants to a centre inside the park.

More than 1,000 residents objected to the scheme, which will also make it easier for big events to be staged in the park.

Bute Park was landscaped in the late 18th century by Capability Brown and had alterations in the late 19th century by the third Marquess of Bute. In 1947, the fourth Marquess of Bute presented the park to Cardiff council. It has grade one listed status.

A road bridge costing £1.4m is due to be built at the North Gate, with a new road access. One rare tree is due to be felled and the council acknowledges that a tranquil part of the park will be disturbed. But it maintains the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

A spokeswoman for Cardiff council said: “A permission for development notice in this case was issued on October 17. The only way this scheme will not proceed is if there is a judicial review on legal grounds or if the council revokes the consent, which is highly unlikely.”

What Professor Morgan says about the development:

I AM furious about this. I find it astonishing that the council, which is supposed to safeguard the interests of Cardiff, could be so arrogant and foolish as to go ahead with such a scheme.

I am trying to organise a debate here in the university about this. It’s a big issue. Cardiff likes to project itself as one of the leading cities in Britain in terms of sustainability, husbanding its resources, and caring for the well-being of its citizens. To build a road into Bute Park, Cardiff’s greatest asset, to facilitate the entry of articulated lorries is the complete antithesis of that philosophy.

Old ways of measuring cities like GDP and population size are from another century. Nowadays, people think in terms of quality of life, and having green spaces is an absolutely vital element of that. Yet there are still those in senior positions who think solely in terms of the commercial elements of a city. Not long ago a planning director came to give a talk at the university. He never once mentioned sustainability.

But in terms of making a city attractive and a desirable place to be, you can’t trump Mother Nature. All right, with urban parks like Bute Park you are talking about cultivated nature, but what we have in Cardiff is a great asset to be nurtured, not something to be jettisoned or messed with.

We get a lot of students from overseas in the department, mainly from China and India. Every year I ask them at the end of their time here what are the best and the worst things about Cardiff. Every year, they speak very positively about our urban parks, by which they mainly mean Bute Park. It’s the number one comment they make. They greatly appreciate it as a place of tranquillity, where they can get away from the busy life of the city streets.

We are told that building the road will make it easier for big events to be organised in the park. It seems the park is being seen primarily as a venue for visitor attractions. But the main point of Bute Park is its value in the lives of the people of Cardiff. If visitors appreciate it too, that’s fine, but it mustn’t become simply a tourist attraction. Every encroachment on to the park is a blow to the quality of life of the people who live here. It is astonishing that the guardians of our civic heritage could even contemplate doing what they have done.

I don’t think the councillors who decided to approve this scheme have thought the matter through properly at all. I know that planning permission has been granted, but I would like them to think again. I intend to invite the council cabinet member responsible, Nigel Howells, to take part in a public debate. So far as I’m concerned, this isn’t over yet. It won’t be over until it’s over.

Cardiff sustainable city greenwash

Poll says Cardiff’s a green giant Nov 10 2008 by Abby Alford, South Wales Echo

Pictures of Cardiff City Hall recently showing mostly councillors cars. Nice view of the fountain between the cars before it gets covered up for a fairground ride. Listed Bute Park damage before planning permission or as the council tells me "just necessary felling of one tree"!?

As Forum for the Future unveils its latest Index of Sustainable Cities, Roger East asks just what makes a city sustainable "It’s about cutting carbon emissions, improving air and water quality, shifting to renewable energy, boosting green business, growing more local food, reducing waste, providing sufficient and efficient housing, green space, good public transport and access to services!" Well he can't have been to Cardiff.

From the Forum for the future report.

Waste collected per head: Cardiff was unable to provide data and so an average was taken from the other 19 cities.

Biodiversity: data was not available for Cardiff so an average was calculated from the other cities.

ranking for future proofing climate change strategy Cardiff 4 (very Low...4 out 0f 20)

vi) resident satisfaction with green space
Per cent of residents who think that for their local area, over the past three years, that parks and opens spaces have got better or stayed the same. Source: England – Audit Commission
2003/2004 data, Wales – Cardiff City Council service questionnaire, July 2006 data,

vii) resident satisfaction with local bus service England and Wales: percentage of residents satisfied with the local bus service, taken from two different sources: in England
this is a BVPI; the data for Cardiff was taken from the 2006 Cardiff City Council service questionnaire.
Sustainable cities

I am amazed that Cardiff has scored so highly This award is seriously unbalanced and flawed!

The bus service is random and the last bus into the city centre from where I live is 7pm! Very often buses can't pull in to bus stops because of people parking at them and very little parking enforcement happens as the promised deregulation hasn't happened.

Presently the council is promoting Project Green or rather planning to build an incinerator at Cardiff Bay - Over-sized – 2.5 times the amount of residual waste Cardiff produces and will have to bring rubbish in from all over South Wales in a 100 trucks a day! 120,000 tonnes of waste ash per year to be transported to a hazardous waste site in Cheltenham.
http://cardiffincinerator.blogspot.com/

We are also campaigning against a new bridge and road for articulated lorries into city centre grade 1 listed Bute Park! Commercialisation of parks is not a sustainable strategy.

This award makes our campaign against this and an incinerator more difficult.

There has also been concern about the new food waste collection being taken all the way to Derby.

There is way too much parking capacity and the council gave into the motoring lobby and reduced higher parking charges. Congestion is appalling. Cars come first. Pedestrians have to put up with 70s style traffic pens in the middle of the road, or lengthy underground tunnels and crossings on one or 2 sides of a crossroads. There are cars parked on cycle lanes everywhere and on pavements. See the pictures here
http://inconsiderateparking.blogspot.com/
The traffic noise is high as the road surfaces are rough. Traffic thunders through built up areas at 40mph. Street clutter is everywhere.

Cardiff is far from a shining example. The built environment is a shambles! This does not come out in the survey.
A five minute walk around Cardiff would tell you that. I invite you to join me for a street audit walk from the station to the castle and then to city hall .

The figures are skewed by the quality of education and 'green' businesses! You are misleading potential visitors and making life so difficult for those of us trying to improve the environment when we are told that Cardiff is one of the most sustainable cities in UK.
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http://www.forumforthefuture.org/node/10000

I made a comment and this is the reply.....
Shining examples?

Hi Anne

Thanks a lot for your comment, the points you raise are really interesting.

With the Index you have to remember that all these positions are relative to one another, so we're not saying that any of these cities are doing fantastically well, just which cities are doing better than others. As I said in my blog post "it doesn’t mean that Bristol is a genuinely sustainable city, it’s just faring better across the board than others in the UK", and in some of the press we've done, our chief executive is quoted as saying that we desperately need shining examples in the UK as we really lack them.

All the best examples of sustainable cities are outside the UK: San Francisco & Portland in the US, Curitiba in Brazil, Vaxjo in Sweden are the best places to look for what can be achieved. We don't think that anywhere in the UK is up to those standards.

So rest assured this isn't an award, it's a report on how cities are currently faring in relation to one another and hopefully a prompt and a reminder that we've got a long way to go.

Good luck with your campaign!
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Indicators used - something wrong with the environmental impact and the quality of life is worse with congestion and the difficulty of getting around on public transport or by foot ot cycle.

environmental impact: air pollution by nitrogen oxides, river water quality, ecological footprint (resource use), household waste collected per head

quality of life: Life expectancy from birth, resident satisfaction with green space, satisfaction with local bus services, unemployment, education (% of working age population with NVQ2 or equivalent)

future-proofing: council’s commitment to preparing for climate change, number of local green businesses, percentage of land favouring biodiversity, level of household waste recycling and composting

To download a copy of the report, visit: www.forumforthefuture.org/sustainable-cities08

Save our parks

This application involves a 2 lane access road into the arboretum area from North Road to allow articulated lorries to enter the park to service events in Coopers Field (the Council’s aim is to maximally commercially exploit this area of the park) and the nursery (which is to be expanded). Needless to say this will radically affect the character of this area of the park (see Max letter below). The modified proposal I doubt will differ much in substance, since the site for the access road had already been cleared.

Both the Bridge and the roadways are quite out-of-scale and will significantly damage the Park this quite and sensitive part of Bute Park. Vehicles/traffic through it will be intrusive. The loop by the Nursery will ruin that corner and will become used for parking.

The arboretum has many special trees, including memorial trees and plaques; some may be damaged directly, but their setting moreso.

The uses as access to Coopers Field and to the Nursery study centre can be provided in alternative ways that avoid impact on this sensitive area of the historic park.

Alternatives

Access to Coopers Field is only occasional and hardly a problem. 'Do minimum' and access via the south side of the Music College (by the tennis courts) should be considered. The latter would be direct onto Coopers Field, with a new bridge, still intrusive but at a less sensitive and less frequented point.

Access to the Nursery study centre should have been considered under that planning application. We are told the Ambulance station route cannot be used, but access for occasional vehicles could be achieved with benefits for access to the playing fields (for events like Race-for-Life) round the north of the changing room building. School buses/minibuses would park outside (in public car park or take over the haphazard uncontrolled parking area to the north of the carpark entrance); construct a separate new footbridge for children to walk through.

Bridge - the Bridge design should be minimal, taking vehicles one-way with a waiting area in the woodland for the very infrequent occasions when vehicles meet.

Roadway - 4 metre roadway is over-wide. It will encourage two-way traffic, and vehicles will go over the edge onto the grassland in practice. This is especially true of wider vehicles (HGVs etc.). As rising bollards controlled from the Nursery are proposed at the North Rd entrance, similar bollards could be placed at the exit from Coopers Field and controlled to ensure vehicles do not meet.

The black tarmac used two years ago to surface the old park track is unnecessarily intrusive; the brown surface of the other roadways was and is preferable.

In summary, I argue for rejecting the whole scheme for its severe impacts on the Park. The present application says too little of impact on trees and nothing on alternatives or balancing impacts against 'benefits'. A scaled down project, with minimal bridge and roadway, excluding the whole loop to the Nursery, would have much less impact but should be compared with alternative options as above, and these put out for public consideration.